Slow days in the office can are a dangerous thing. Once, many moons ago I got bored phoned a colleague across the office and we got talking bikes and silly challenges as you do. Before I knew what was happening I was riding a Honda 50 from John O’Groats to Lands End…Fast forward far too many years: A different time a different office but the same old tedium was in evidence. So I give Russell (of Twisted Iron fame) a bell. We soon got onto the monthly meetings he runs targeted at bikers who love to tinker and diverge somewhat from what the factory intended. I muttered something about how great it would be to ride in on a standard bike and then over the course of the meeting convert it into a special. Me and my big mouth…So as you may have read, my stock 1995 Kawasaki ZR550 is undergoing somewhat of a transformation on March 19th. I think the time is right for a little update on the progress of the preparation for the big day. I went down to Essex to see the lads at Raw Steel Choppers and Naked Speed who will be doing most of the clever stuff and now we are working on getting parts together for the conversion. The bike will be getting new clocks and the range at Digital Speedos offered up some that I perfect for the look we are going for. I won’t say exactly what just yet; I want to keep the final look under wraps for now. The seat was another challenge, I was unsure about single or dual seat to begin with. One thing is for certain the huge stock seat had to go. So what to do? After a bit of pondering I have decided which way to go and Mark of Naked Speed has recommended a trimmer that makes up bespoke seats to high standard for a reasonable cost. So Bert from Vonzeti will be making the seat from scratch and cutting shaping and covering in keeping with the theme of the rebuild. He is red hot apparently so I am really looking forward to seeing what he comes up with.

Otherwise things are progressing. String at Raw Steel is working out what he can do to my exhaust and various bits of the 550’s frame, tank etc. Mark at Naked Speed has also sent me a shopping list of bits will need for the build. Exciting stuff, more updates as the build day draws near. In the meantime check out what the boys at Digital Speedos and Vonzeti have to offer and see if you can work out what will wind up on my Kwack!